The Faith of Friendship, the Courage of Life
by Suki Uchiha Lamprouge
Summary: Sam and Ken Ichijouji are twin digidestined new to the side of good, whilst they struggle to make a place for themselves a new rival has taken over where the Digimon Emperor left off. Can the twins help the team change the heart of a trouble digidestined or will they lose everything that they love? Rated M for safety
1. Chapter 1

**Yes I know, I am getting another fanfic started. I should finish one before I start up another one. What can I say; I get something in my head, I want to write it down. This one is from an old series that I used to watch and now I want to write about it. This one is a Digimon fanfic that takes place after the Digidestined have defeated the Digimon Emperor. Ken's actions lead to the birth of a greater challenge that the digidestined have ever face before. Her name is Ceres Black, grandchild of the man who accidentally created the Digital World. The ages of the digidestined have been changed by a few years for development purposes.**

 **I don't own Digimon-it belongs to Funimation. The story is mine, Monsterslut is being my beta. I own Samantha and Monsterslut owns Ceres.**

" _Nice spot, Ichijouji. I can see the whole of Toy Town from up here."_

" _My name is Ken, thank you, not Ichijouji. Hey, Sammy...did you bring the snacks?"_

" _Sure did, big brother." She dumped the bag full of snacks on the picnic blanket, a huge smile on her young face. "Ponymon! Lunamon! Wormmon! Come and get it!"_

 _Three Digimon of varying size and shape bounded over to the three humans laughing and playing as they came. They all practically dived into the food pile, devouring anything and everything in their way._

" _Awwww," she pouted as the Digimon consumed the food. "There were rice balls in there for Ceres."_

 _The American Digidestined shrugged. "Maybe one day when I come visit Japan I can stuff my face with them." A sudden grin appeared on her face and she suddenly tackled the two to the ground. "Best friends forever?" she laughed with a cheesy grin._

" _Best friends forever!"_

Sam woke up with a startled gasp stuck in the back of her throat. She sat upright in her bed, a bead of cold sweat dripped down her forehead. She hadn't thought about those old memories in a long, long time. Silently Sam got out of bed and crossed to her desk where she sat down and opened the drawer.

She looked over to the corner of her room where a small black pony was asleep on a dog-bed. Sam sighed and looked at the picture in her desk drawer. It was a polaroid picture of three young kids posing beside three creatures of different sizes. A small black and violet pony, a blue and black dog and a green worm about the size of a puppy.

Sam smiled at the picture and brushed her hand over the caption.

 _Ceres, Ken and Sammy BFF's_

There came a soft knock on the door, startling Sam. She put the photo back in her desk drawer and got up to answer it. Her brother Ken was standing there with Leafmon in his arms and a soft smile on his face. "Morning sleepy head. And here I thought you were going to stay in bed all day."

"Just let me get dressed!" Sam grinned, closing the door. "Foalmon! Wake up!" She threw a pillow at the sleeping pony in her room before she rushed to her closet. Today was the day that the fiftteen-year-old Samantha Ichijouji had been waiting for all week. Today they were going to the digital world!

"But I'm tired!" Foalmon yawned. "Sammy I'm tired! Can't we go tomorrow?"

Sam looked to the tired foal and sighed. "Foalmon c'mon!" She stripped off her nightgown and started looking for something to wear. Both Sam and her brother were to meet up with five other Digidestined to work on their team skills today by practicing fighting together and helping each other.

It was a trust exercise.

After she got dressed, she called out for Ken to let himself back into the room. Sam was wearing a pair of jeans and a tank top with some boots ready for a busy day. Ken smiled as leant against the wall. He was holding Leafmon in his arms as he watched his younger twin get ready.

"I hope you're excited, I have the perfect place to take them to. Hurry up and get ready. Make sure Foalmon is in your bag for when we meet up with the others. Don't want anyone to notice her."

Sam nodded as she picked up Foalmon; the tiny Digimon groaned, not wanting to get up. Shaking her head, Sam put Foalmon in her backpack and surprisingly, she didn't complain. Sam however felt like her back would snap when she put the backpack on.

"I think that Foalmon has put on some weight. I don't remember her being this heavy the last time I had to carry her. Must be all those chocolate covered rice balls."

He laughed and put Leafmon into his bag as they headed out the door.

"Have a nice day at the park you two!" their mother shouted from the kitchen.

Sam broke out in a fit of giggles as the twins left the apartment. If only their mother knew what they were really doing, she'd never let them out of the house again.

After they got the the bottom floor, the two headed out down the street, they were heading to meet the other Digidestend at Odaiba Elementary School where the gate was to the Digital World. If they got caught they'd all have to explain why middle school kids were at the elementary school with two students who didn't even go there-so they would have to be sneaky.

After Ken had broken free of the Dark Spore that turned him into the Digimon Emperor, there were a few members of the team who still had trust issues. Even Sam was having problems being trusted by the team. Any trust that existed was displayed by two long-standing Digidestined: Kari Kamiya and TK Takaishi.

The two trusted them because they both understood what it was to deal with the darkness in the Digital World. TK's older brother Yamato 'Matt' Ishida had to deal with his own darkness at one point whilst Kari was in a long fought battle with the same darkness. They understood what it was like to have to deal with that kind of darkness. The best that anyone could do was to be there and try to help.

Yolei Inoue was the only one in the team that was having a hard time accepting the twins under the assumption that they would never change.

Ken and Sam arrived just in time to see the teenagers waiting for the two. TK and Kari both smiled at the twins, Davis grinned and waved them over in a hurry.

"Glad you two could finally get your butts outta bed. I know you guys arranged this-you're totally late by the way. Glad that Yolei didn't scare you off."

Yolei stood off to the side with Poromon in her arms and a frown on her face. Her problem wasn't so much with Sam but more with Ken, she was more than ready to go to try and prove that Ken would never change and his twin would always stick by him thus making her just as bad as him.

TK came over with a grin on his face.

"Afternoon shift's in!" he laughed. "Matt wanted to join us but he had band practice today and June's following him again. He suggested dinner cause he's been so busy lately."

Davis looked over at TK a bit confused, he was wondering why Matt would be picking them up for dinner. He shrugged, he was more excited to get to the Digital World and Kari to care anything about TK's brother.

"C'mon you guys, we ready to go to the Digital World?"

"Sometimes I wonder why I'm the youngest," Cody Hida frowned as he carried Upamon in his arms.

Sam looked over at Cody and smiled, she knew that he was the youngest of the team but also knew that he could hold his own with the rest of them. She went over and held out her hand to him.

"Cody, I hope we can be great friends. Just 'cause you're the youngest, doesn't mean you're any less a part of this team. Come on you guys, once we get there you guys'll love it."

The group of teenagers made their way towards the school gate, checking around for anyone who would notice the bunch of them breaking into the school. Seeing no one around, Davis proceeded to break into the ground before taking everyone up to the computer lab.

Yolie sat down at the middle computer at the back of the room and her keys flew across the keyboard as she opened the portal to the digital world. "Ready?" she asked everyone, ignoring Ken and Sam.

"Ready!" the teens replied.

Cody and Yolie went in first with Upamon and Poromon, disappearing in a burst of light as they were converted into data. TK and Kari went next with Patamon and Gatomon leaving Davis behind.

Davis turned to Sam and Ken with a cheesy grin on his face. "See you inside!" he laughed before he and Demiveemon disappeared.

Sam wondered what they could do in order to show that they could be trusted.

Ken shrugged and held out his D3. "Coming?"

She nodded and together the twins held out their D3's only to be consumed by the same white light that took the others. In a matter of moments the two found themselves standing in the middle of a field that sat by some lush, green woods.

Kari walked over placing her hand on the younger twin's shoulder. "Give Yolei time to open up to you," she smiled. " There's been so much that's happened between everyone and once she see's what we see, you'll be practically best friends."

"Kari!" TK shouted, running over to her. "Kari, we're near Toy Town!" He pointed behind him where there was a sign post in the middle of the grass with the arrow reading Toy Town in faded lettering.

"We used to come here all the time," Sam smiled, thinking of the three musketeers that they used to be.

"I remember when I had been here when I was a kid," TK went on. "Patamon, you remember too right?"

The others were busy looking at the view of the wooden toy town, amazed at how the view looked.

Sam stood next to Ken with a sad smile on her face.

Ken knew what she was thinking about. The last time the twins had been here was when it used to be just the three of the. It felt weird that she wasn't here and that there were others in their little secret spot, a secret of this place the three of them shared. Bringing new people to their little picnic spot didn't mean the memories were any less meaningful. Little did they know, their day would be changing soon.

"Oh lookie what we have here, Arcmon."

Whoever it was made the teenagers almost jump right out of their skin.

"Seven little Digidestined and seven little digimon, I do believe Lilithmon. She won't be happy."

Out of the treeline there appeared a humanoid digimon wearing a full suit of armor including a helm from where a set of blue eyes peered out. The helm glanced up in the tree where a second humanoid digimon wearing a tight tattered black dress with black demonic wings sat, legs crossed as she cleaned her painted blood red claws, she had two smalls horns protruding out the top of her tangled mass of lack curls.

"Who are they?!" Davis shouted.

"I've never seen them before," Gatomon declared.

"I am Arcmon," the knight introduced himself. "And this is my counterpart, Lilithmon. You should not be here."

"We're allowed here!" Yolie shouted. She pulled her D3 out of her pocket and held it up. "We're Digidestined!"

Lilithmon rolled her eyes. "I grow weary of them, Arcmon. Let's get rid of them. I have a spa appointment!" She jumped down from the tree and landed on the ground with the grace of a cat.

"Let's do it!" David shouted.

"DIGI-ARMOR ENERGISE!"

"Ponymon! Digivolve!" Sam shouted.

"You too Wormmon!" Ken yelled.

Lilithmon and Arcmon glanced sideways at each other as a bright light filled the clearing.

The rookie digimon forms were replaced by champion digimon who were wearing different types of armor all except Alimon and Stingmon, the normal champion forms of Ponymon and Wormmon.

Lilithmon yawned. "You kids bore me. Didn't your mother ever teach you to leave fighting to the grownups?" She launched herself at Nefertimon with a scowl on her face.

Truley Sam always hated watching digimon fight each other even though sometimes it was necessary. She cringed when Arcmon flung Alimon through the air only for the knight to be attacked by Flamedramon and Digmon.

Seven against two...this was going to be quick.

Suddenly a glowing black light filled the clearing and consumed the fighting digimon...when the energy faded, the seven teenagers found themselves looking at seven digimon, all reverted back to their basic training form.

"You two are absolutely pointless. Too busy showing off to take things seriously."

The seething voice belonged to a figure behind both Lilithmon and Arcmon. The humanoid digimon stepped out of the shadows to reveal something like a werewolf with shaggy black fur and a blue streak down its back. It's red eyes were glaring down at the seven digimon whimpering from their wounds.

"It's so easy it should be criminal," came another laugh. Something darted out of the trees and landed on the ground, hands stuffed in the pocket of a pair of mini denim shorts. It was another human! "Typical that the only one I can rely on is you, Weremon."

"Oh my god! Ceres!" the twins gasped.

"Who?" Davis demanded to know.

"Name's Ceres Black kid," she answered. "And I want you out of my world."

"Your world!" Yolie scowled. "The Digital World doesn't belong to you."

"No it doesn't," Ceres answered. "It belongs to the digimon and you humans are destroying it. Get out!" She pressed a small button on the side of her watch and suddenly the digidestined and their digimon were thrown out of the digital world...


	2. Chapter 2

**Time to get another chapter up, I have been so far behind in writing. Work has been crazy and on top of that my work schedule has changed. Anyways, this chapter will have the twins meeting the older digidestined, one of which Sam is actually dating. They also find out about a new student that had just arrived and wish to find out who it was.**

 **I don't own Digimon as the characters belong to Funamation. I own Sam and Monsterslut is my Beta. Monsterslut own Ceres.**

Sam was waiting down at the bottom of the apartment building, rugged up against the cold whilst her backpack sat on the ground at her feet. Inside, Foalmon was sleeping, rugged up and warm for the day ahead. Sam hoped that her digimon friend would sleep through the day without complaining and asking to be let out. Usually she would stay quiet inside her backpack until after school where they were going to meet with some of the older digidestined at the park.

After being kicked out of the digital world, the group had tried to get back in with no luck. Whatever Ceres had done had kicked them out good and proper. Sam shivered a little, winter was so cold here this time of year.

"Turn that frown upside down, Sammy," Ken smiled, coming down the bottom of the stairs with his backpack that Leafmon was partially sticking out of. "Still thinking about Ceres? I saw the photo on your desk."

Last night Sam had spent hours at her desk staring at that photo and wondering what had happened to their former friend to turn her bad. "Let's just go to school," Sam sighed. "Focus on the day and getting through it. Okay Ken?"

Ken nodded. "Sure. Focus on getting through the day." He put his D3 in his pocket and zipped the bag up, putting it on. "I just got a message from Lyn. She said she can't be my lab partner today since she'll be showing a new student around with Bradley so guess you and me are lab partners today. That okay?"

"Always big brother," Sam smiled.

Ken wrapped his arm around his twin as they walked to school. "We'll try going back to the digital world tomorrow. Once we meet with some of the older kids I'm sure that we can work something out. Kids all over the world are digidestined and they get in fine, so will we. Okay?"

Sam smiled. "Okay."

When the twins arrived at school, Sam was shocked to see that there wasn't as many children around as there should have been even though it was early. Maybe it had something to do with the new student. Sam felt her D-Terminal beep in her jacket pocket so she pulled the device out with a smile on her face.

 _Sam, looking forward to seeing you tonight. Just gotta loose June first. She sticks to me like a bad smell to a Bakemon._

She giggled.

"Miss Ichijouji please put your palmtop away. This is school, not a telecommunications company. Do I have to take it off you?" Mrs Nakada, Sam and Ken's teacher stood behind them with her arms crossed and a serious look on her face. "I won't ask again."

"Sorry Mrs Nakada," Sam apologised. Her put her phone away and zipped her bag back up. "It won't happen again."

The teacher nodded. "See you in class you two. Don't forget, Bradley and Lynn are showing the new student around today so your lab partners." Mrs Nakada turned and made her way down the corridor towards the staff common room.

The twins went on their way to classes, everyone was gossiping about the new student which was apparently a girl. They ignored it and carried on with their work. Occasionally bits of information would reach them but it was always something different. One moment she was Australian, the next American or even from the Uk. She was tall...no she was short with glasses...it was so confusing that eventually they just shut it out altogether.

However Sam was distracted, she couldn't help but think about everything that had happened with Ceres and what the meeting with the older digidestined would bring at the park tonight. She didn't want to think about the new student not with so much else going on.

During lunch, Sam and Ken went to go find an empty room with their lunches in hand and backpacks on, looking for a place to let Foalmon and Leafmon out. There was a bunch of kids surrounding a classroom near the library, some were even gawking through the classroom windows.

"What on earth?" Ken frowned. "Hey, what's going on?"

"It's the new student!" one of the younger students answered. "She's so pretty. Such beautiful hair. I wonder if she dyes it!"

Sam rolled her eyes. "Really?"

Ken laughed.

"C'mon Ken," Sam grinned, "let's go meet the new kid. Then we can feed Foalmon and Leafmon."

They pushed their way through the throng of students surrounding the open classroom door. The new kids was sitting up the back of the classroom-that was obvious by the attention she was getting.

"Where are you going Ceres?" someone asked as the girl stood up.

The twins froze when the students parted to let Ceres through. She walked over and stopped in front of them. "Well, well, well. If it isn't Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee. I've heard so much about you. Ichijoji this, Ichijoji that. Well, there's a new genius on the block. Name's Ceres. Ceres Black."

Some of the girls behind Ceres giggled.

"Would you leave me alone!" Ceres snapped. "It's like being followed by gossiping mosquitoes." She tucked a strand of her teal hair behind her ear and walked off.

Sam and Ken quickly retreated from the classroom as the elder twin pulled out his D-Terminal to email the rest of the team that Ceres was at their school of all places!

 **-XXX-**

By the time Sam and Ken had arrived at the park with Foalmon and Leafmon, most of the digidestined were already there. They two had volunteered to stay behind after class and help clean the classroom when several students had gone home sick. They knew that they'd be cutting it close but they were only a few minutes late.

"Weren't followed?" Davis snapped, looking around them to see if Ceres had followed them.

Ken shook his head. "Nope. We watched Ceres get picked up by a town car from the classroom. She didn't follow us."

Sam went to sit beside TK and his brother Matt Ishida. Matt reached over and gently squeezed her hand with a smile, Ken saw this but obviously ignored it. What brother wants to accept the fact that their little sister is already dating? Certainly not Ken.

"So who exactly is this girl?" asked Tai Kamiya-Kari's brother. He sat at on a swing with his hair sticking off in odd angles and his school uniform disheveled from running around all day.

"Her name is Ceres Black," Sam explained. "We met her the first time we met in the digital world. When Ken and I found Leafmon and Ponymon, we got into a fight. Ceres and Pupmon jumped into the fight and helped us. She was absolutely fearless. Said she'd been running around the place for a couple of days. When we figured out that we could come back we thought we'd never see her again."

Ken looked over at Sam knowing that this had to be as hard on her as it was on him. Knowing that they were going to have to fight her...that just made things worse than they already were. Matt looked at Sam with a worried look on his face.

"Sam, don't worry. You know that Ken was able to break free from the darkness, we can help Ceres break from it as well. The darkness can be fought, we've all seen it already."

Yolei looked between the two with a confused look on her face. How could the older digidestined trust her and her brother so easy? Ken had done so much damage and hurt when he was the emperor and Sam just went along with it. The way that the two were acting...it was almost like they were dating or something. Almost at the exact moment, it was almost like Davis had the same idea.

"Hey TK, is your brother dating Ken's sister? The way you're being all lovey dovey...Matt and Sam sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G."

Matt rolled his eyes at the same time that Ken did.

Ken knew about Sam and Matt dating, he didn't really care as long as Matt was nice to her. Ken knew that Matt had to fight the darkness inside of him as well when he was younger. Ken looked over at Kari-he knew about the darkness that the light digidestined held within her.

"But what if Ceres isn't under the control of the darkness?" Kari suddenly asked. A hushed silence fell over the group. "No one knows the darkness more than Ken or I...but what if for once the darkness isn't to blame for this? There's gonna be a time where we come across someone who has a dark heart without the darkness getting involved."

Ken then shook his head and stood up.

"Right now, what we need to focus on is how to take care of Ceres and not about who my sister is or isn't dating. I know what I've done in the past is wrong, but we're here to help with anything we can. I know there are some who don't think that Sam and I are part of this team, and we are and we are here to help."

Matt nodded along with the rest of the older kids, they knew that Ken was right. They needed to focusing on the issue at hand. Matt looked over at Kari's brother Tai and nodded his head before he got to his feet. Tai was the leader of the older group and sorta the unofficial leader of the whole group.

"Ken's right, we need to be focusing on the issue at hand. Ken and Sam have proven time and time again they are making up for their mistakes. Matt and TK as well as Kari trust them, it is time that you all start acting like a team instead of trying to tear each other apart. I get that it takes time, it took us a lot of time."

Before any of the others could answer, Demiveemon jumped to attention. He looked back at Davis who stood beside him almost trying to protect him, even in his training form.

"Davis, there is another Digimon nearby. We are going to have to be careful. It doesn't feel like a very friendly Digimon either."

Gatomon stood beside Kari almost ready to fight as well as Patamon. Since the two of them could be able to get to a stronger form so easy, they were ready and willing to go.

"Put your guns down."

Leafmon and Foalmon gasped. From the shadows, a black and blue pup with huge feet appeared.

"Yeah, yeah, it's a figure of speech, humans are weird."

"Who is that?" Davis asked.

"Pupmon," Leafmon answered. "She's Ceres' digimon."

"They followed you!" Yolie accused. "I knew you couldn't be trusted!"

Pupmon made a sound in the back of her throat that sounded like a laugh. "Talk about not being able to be trusted. "I'm here to deliver a warning, don't come back to the digital world."

"Hey!" Yolie shouted. "We can go to the digital world when we want! We have friends there!"

"Not as many as you think," Pupmon snorted. "Not everyone welcomes you to the digital world. Not everyone wants you there. Everything that happened is your fault, Ken!"

Ken gasped.

"The dark rings, the dark spires, the dark spirals!" Pupmon growled. "It's all your fault! All of it! What happened to Ceres is all your fault, Ken! All of it! You and your sister are what's wrong with the digital world."

Sam gasped. "Me? I-"

"Don't say that!" Foalmon argued. "Please, Pupmon...we used to be best friends. BFF's."

Pupmon growled and launched herself at Foalmon, headbutting the young digimon and knocking her into the trash can. "We're not friends anymore!"

"Is this a private party or can anyone join?"

Standing at the top of the stairs near the playground was Ceres wearing a pair of black jeans, boots and a red jumper with a weird picture on it. She came down the stairs and picked Pupmon up, stroking the angry digimon's fur.

Davis stood to attention. "You haven't been invited."

"If you don't want me to be responsible for killing your precious digital data," Ceres growled, "don't come back to the digital world. You won't get the warm welcome you always get. The digimon are waking up, they want their homes back."

Davis snorted. "The digital world is for everyone."

"Not anymore," Ceres warned.

"Miss Ceres?"

The group of teenagers looked back to see a man wearing a suit at the top of the stairs.

"Miss Ceres, your father has asked that you and Miss Pupmon return home immediately. He has a business dinner that you are required to attend."

"Thanks Theo," Ceres answered. "Remember my warning," she hissed at the other kids. "You're not welcome anymore." The teenage girl turned around and walked back up the stairs to her driver.

"I don't know about you guys," Cody frowned, "but I have a bad feeling about this."

The rest of the group nodded their heads. Something bad was going to happen.


End file.
